Texas Tech students protest sculpture

Well if this news item wasn’t custom made for our blog focusing on culture clashes on campus, I don’t know what is.

Members of the Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at Texas Tech University are holding a protest until 2 p.m. today over a controversial sculpture on school grounds.

The sculpture, titled Tornado of Ideas, is by Brooklyn-based artist Tom Otterness, whose work has been described as “whimsical,” according to the university’s website. His pieces can be found in private art collections around the world as well as in museums, including the New York Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Dallas Museum of Art.

Tech paid $142,000 for the sculpture as part of the university’s public art collection.Here’s the description of the sculpture from the Young Conservatives’ news release:

“Among the scenes on the piece are a version of the Texas Tech mascot, the Masked Rider, holding a javelin, attempting to sodomize a police officer and two lesbian women sitting arm-in-arm looking out at passersby. On top of a book labeled “The Way Things Ought to Be” is a woman staring at a man clinging to the edge of the sculpture about to fall off.

“The work also features a number of books, including ‘Soul on Ice,’ written by a former Black Panther leader who was imprisoned for serial rape, which he called ‘revolutionary.’ More questionable titles, such as ‘Quotations from Chairman Mao,’ who killed over 65 million people in China, and ‘Das Kapital’ by Karl Marx are included as well. Also included are Michael Moore’s ‘Dude Where’s My Country?’ and ‘The Terrorist Next Door: The Military Movement and the Radical Right.’ “‘

The group is gathering signatures for a petition to remove the sculpture and is sending a letter of protest to the president of the university, the board of regents, and other alumni and supporters of the university. The online petition and more pictures of the sculpture can be found here.